Elena Musolina grew up thinking homosexuality was an affliction of alcoholics and drug addicts. Now she marches alongside her son at LGBT rights protests and goes head-to-head with Russia’s most vocal anti-LGBT politician.

“I spent a lot of time, in my earlier years of limelight, suppressing myself.” The rapper, who tackles homophobia and rape culture in verse, is making forays into TV and photography, working on a new record — and refusing to be suppressed any longer.

Director Etan Cohen explains to BuzzFeed News why his film, starring Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart, deliberately pushes the envelope on issues of sexuality, class, and race. “And you know, since Selma couldn’t get them, we’re going to do it.”

“We’ve put young boys and men in a straightjacket, forcing them to conform to a construct and disconnect from who they really are,” The Mask You Live In writer-director Jennifer Siebel Newsom told BuzzFeed News.